Friday, July 27, 2007

This is really a good opportunity to look through the site before signing some health program. A person can be so lucky to read all the complaints thereby gaining knowledge about the companies he/she has to keep away from. Because even in such sphere as health insurance where people have to be really mean and lowdown to make the elderly or ill persons suffer, there exist a number of companies which are engaged in fraud.

MWI Premier Health. The scam of this company is not that horrible. They can just get from somewhere your credit card number and take some money of your bank account. The unauthorized amount may vary from $20 to $150. Though when you call them and explain the situation they apologize and remove that charge from your credit, it brings some inconvenience and mess on it the account and, understandably, it gets out of balance.

Cigna Insurance. Sometimes this company can provide you some troubles, which are more serious than scam – they can influence your health. They are really dodgy and always try to find some way to avoid paying the coverage. They can say that such and such medical treatment is not necessary and deny your request, and when you start disputing they say there was no letter of denial and so on. Or in the insurance contract they mention only one dosage level of the prescripted drug and if you take the other they will not cover it. Or they can make a mistake in the spelling of you name, accidentally or intentionally, and then stall for time refusing you in coverage.

Healthcare Advantage. Their health plan is completely a scam: they assure you they cover 80% of the medical costs but when it comes to payment they wriggle out of an engagement. They even do not accept a money order – is not it strange? They also say that the price you would pay for the coverage depends on the location and offer some discounts, etc. but then they charge you full price.

Sunday, July 22, 2007

While choosing a furniture store to upgrade my apartment, I have decided to check the customer reviews on two companies I had previously selected: Ashley Furniture HomeStores and Raymore & Flanigan. Raymour and Flanigan is the actual name of the store. However, many people confuse Raymore vs Raymour.

Poor delivery service. According to the customers’ furious comments, in most cases the companies never deliver furniture items on time. It can be three or six day delay or some items of your furniture might never be delivered: there were some cases, when the pieces of furniture were missing and not replaced in a half a year term, after which, surely, nobody wanted them. But that is half the trouble. Furniture can be delivered damaged and unfixable, and the company would not like to work the things out. The verdict: loosely organized and operated delivery system.

No honor to the warranty. Sure, selling their furniture, they persuade you that if some trouble comes around they will be with you to break it down. But after this trouble arrives, they disregard those promises as hard as they can – never answer who is going to take care of you problem, whose attention will be brought to it and they just keep shuttling you from one manager to another. They are stalling for time while you are being stressed out over it. Some managers just promise you the refund or replacement to calm you down for a while and you can wait for ever. In the Ashley Furniture the salesperson can even ask you to sign the contract, which binds you to repay 30% restocking fee if the furniture is returned. The verdict: unfair business practice.

Unsatisfactory client service. In most cases, salespersons are rather pushy and attack you instantaneously you enter the store. The companies are known for ripping off their customers selling unremarkable furniture at rather high price. The way customers are treated is usually far from forthcoming, especially when you are calling to reach the person who would solve the problems with your furniture they have provided. Representatives of the companies say they are “franchised and have little control of what each store does”. Is that an answer of a company which does everything for the customer to be happy? The verdict: management is incompetent and inept.

Resuming all written above, I should better go to some other retailers. What about you?

Friday, July 6, 2007

Sometimes when you are dissatisfied with the services or products provided, you go directly to the manager or client service worker to solve your problem or at least to blow off some steam. You are angry and can be even harsh and aggressive that is why the main goal of the person talking to you is to calm you down and to soothe your anger. But do not forget that you came to request some justification, legal monetary compensation or settling the issue because nowadays these service centre workers have a lot of tricks how to handle an irritated customer.

Satisfying tricks.They can just acknowledge your problem. Acknowledge that they would be feeling the same too even if they clearly understand that this is a complete lie. Do not fall for this bait, even if the attitude is courteous and friendly – that is what they were taught to: to act naturally influencing on you psychologically. Then, continuing your friendly conversation they can ask politely what can they do for you to feel better and fix the situation which is also a very spread method to shift off the responsibility for solving of the problem and to find that very way out you suggested yourself. Sometimes they even tell the customer they are not the ones who have the answer and tell that they will find out how to solve the problem and get back to you, stalling for the time for you to relax and start to take it easy.

Concentration on the issue. Those are all pretty simple steps. All these tricks and techniques lead to the distraction of the main reason of all the fuss: of fixing your problem. They think it is enough for a customer to be heard and listened to. Or they recognize and acknowledge your upset emotional state and consider it the fixing. How often do you hear stores and those working in shops or service centres doing that? The main rule here is easy: do not lose your vigilance to be calmed down that much to agree to some loose solution.